Did Colonists Give Infected Blankets to Native Americans as Biological Warfare?

Did Colonists Give Infected Blankets to Native Americans as Biological Warfare?

Almost certainly not.

The English, French, Dutch, and other European colonists in the 17th and 18th Century had a horrific fear of smallpox and measles and pretty much all of them lost friends and family to those diseases. If someone had suggested this—other than a British general—they would have considered them crazed or demented.

While it was certainly possible for someone to create an smallpox epidemic out of spite, it would be a criminal act and possibly undetectable. Epidemics of smallpox, measles, and other diseases swept through colonial settlements and Native villages regularly. The malicious actions of an individual or small group to promote infection would have scarcely been noticed.

Smallpox was a particular problem during the American Revolution. Smallpox ravaged the Continental army regularly, especially in the crowded camps outside Quebec and Montreal in 1775 and 1776:

None of these vexations compared to the calamity first noticed in the American regiments on December 6. “The smallpox is all around us,” a private wrote, “and there is great danger of its spreading in the army.” By December 9, rumors of the disease had even reached British ears inside Quebec. “The smallpox does havoc among them,” Thomas Ainslie, a customs collector and militia captain, reported in his diary. “’Tis a deadly infection in Yankee veins.” Deadly indeed. An English writer later described smallpox as “the most terrible of all the ministers of death.” Transmitted by human vectors rather than by insects or contaminated water, the variola virus typically caused influenza-like symptoms twelve days after exposure; three or four days later, the first sores erupted, often in the mouth and throat, before spreading to the palms, soles, face, torso, forearms, nostrils, and eyes. By the fourth week, mortality might range from 15 to 60 percent. Survivors—like [General George] Washington and [General Richard] Montgomery—were scarred for life and sometimes blinded, though perpetually immune; pocked young men were much prized by military recruiters.

Insurrection in America coincided with a smallpox epidemic that would claim more than a hundred thousand lives across the continent from 1775 to 1782. When the disease appeared in the camps outside Quebec, suspicion immediately fell on Carleton. British commanders at Fort Pitt in 1763 had allegedly approved sending blankets from a smallpox hospital to marauding Indians, so urging infected habitants to wander into American lines seemed plausible. One Pennsylvanian serving with Arnold would claim that “the smallpox, introduced into our cantonments by the indecorous, yet fascinating arts of the enemy, had already begun its ravages.” Upon getting reports from Canada, Jefferson later alleged that “this disorder was sent into our army designedly by the commanding officer in Quebec.” Perhaps more likely was the incidental exposure of Arnold’s men upon reaching the St. Lawrence in mid-November. The disease was endemic in Montreal and Quebec.

Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming (The Revolution Trilogy). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

Pretty much no one wanted anything to do with smallpox.